Mortals Read the Lightning Thief
by Swagboss
Summary: Gaea has destroyed the mist and Percy's school learns of his adventures
1. Chapter 1

Mark POV:

My name is Mark Finch. I am a junior at Goode high school and am a member of the swim team. I lived an ordinary teen drama filled life until the world discovered a several millennia year old secret of the existence of everything from Greek….."Mythology" this summer. Apparently Gaea, the evil earth goddess and mother of the giants and titans, tried to reawaken after several millennia and resurrect the giants, who stirred after the defeat of Kronos and the titans, in order to destroy mankind and Olympus which would have really sucked. She was put back to defeated and put back to sleep, but this was after the Mist or magical veil that clouded the immortal world from the mortal world was destroyed. No one really believed that until Athena flashed into live CNN TV. Also I learned a shocking secret about one of…. I guess you could call friends Percy Jackson.

He was a strange kid. Percy had severe ADHD and dyslexia, could speak fluent Greek and was insanely good at swimming. Many people avoided Percy and dubbed him a freak because of this, even though girls thought he was hot with his messy black hair, unique sea green eyes, and ripped muscles. They were persistent even though he claimed to have a "goddess of a girlfriend", who was spending time visiting her family in San Francisco when she usually lived in New York, but this didn't make much sense to me. Therefore, you could have guessed that he wasn't "popular". His only friends at Goode were some kids from the swim team. These friends included me of course, the red headed Eric Fortman, Alex Miller, a short guy with curly brown hair, Sarah Keton, who was Eric's girlfriend, and Alyssa Ford who had an obvious crush on Percy who of course never noticed. He disappeared at the beginning of the school year last year and we just sadly assumed he had switched schools. When he came back we were shocked. Percy stepped out of his blue Maserati Spyder that he had from last year and walked over to the other side and opened the door. Out stepped a beautiful curly blond hair girl who looked like she belonged on a modeling magazine. Percy had lost his tan, got new scars on his arms and legs, his mysterious gray hair streak was more defined, looked like he had suffered from starvation, and had a glazed look in his eyes that made his swirly sea green eyes look like dark storm clouds. The girl looked the same as him. She also had a strange gray hair streak and a dark look in her eyes. Percy wrapped his arm around her and kissed her and a glanced at my friends. Alyssa had a murderous expression on her face and my friends were gapping, the guys with some drool on their chin while they looked at the blond girl. The girl pulled away, got back in his car and drove off, Percy watching until she was out of sight. After the entire school got over its shock, Alyssa asked who the girl was, why he left and what happened with a little menace in her voice, but Percy just winced, said Annabeth my girlfriend of 2 years and walked past her.

Also last week for the start of a new school year our gym teacher coach Hedge had a surprise for us. He had us take a day of sword fighting and I swear Hedge winked at Percy while announcing this. Then the instructor came in and told us to call him Malcolm. Malcolm was a good looking guy about a year older than the rest of the class who had blond hair, freakish gray eyes and defined muscles. For some reason his eyes widened when he saw Percy then glared at him. I glanced confusedly at Percy, who had an amused trouble maker grin on his face. Malcolm unaware that the entire class was staring then pulled Percy over in the corner and started whispering something that wavered between gibberish and English. So, they knew each other? All I picked up was how she was devastated and why didn't you remember sooner, but I shrugged that off. Percy just sighed, mumbled something to Malcolm and walked back over to the bleachers. Malcolm told us he wanted a volunteer to spar against him for learning purposes and David, the baseball captain and overconfident bully and jock, stepped up. Malcolm handed him a blunted wooden sword and got in a fighting stance. David being the overconfident jerk he was lunged and swung wildly and Malcolm sighed and simply parried then proceeded to kick the blade out his hand. I stared in shock with the rest of the class with the exception of Percy and Coach Hedge who both simply nodded. Malcolm asked for another volunteer and Percy smiled and raised his hand. I heard a bunch of jocks snickering about how "Jackson would get owned" behind me. I looked over at Sarah, Alyssa, Alex, and Eric who all had angry looks on their faces and then turned my attention back to Percy, who popped up from behind the sword rack with a strange bronze sword in his hand that I could've sworn wasn't on the rack. He got into a fighting stance and slashed at Malcolm. They both were sweating and trading expert blows for about 5 minutes until Malcolm stabbed at Percy's throat and Percy bent back matrix style. Percy swung his sword up and hit Malcolm's wrist with the flat of the blade. Malcolm winced, dropped the blade, and looked up to see Percy's sword aimed at his chin. Percy and Malcolm then bro hugged which snapped everyone out of their stunned expressions. Then some jock hesitantly asked if they knew each other. Percy and Malcolm simply glanced at each other and smirked.

It had been about 2 weeks since the sword fighting incident. Percy explained to us that he knew Malcolm from his summer camp. His "super fun" summer camp where you sword fight, prank with the Stolls, and get dumped into canoe lakes. We always asked if we could go since it seemed a teensy bit fun, but Percy would get nervous and try to change the subject. Alyssa continued to ask about his disappearance and would clench her jaw and ask about Annabeth which I thought was hilarious. Percy would always sigh and mumble something about a psycho cow lady under his breath. Today we all walked into English class with my favorite teacher Mr. Blofis, who by the way was Percy's stepdad, and I knew something was up. Mr. Blofis was glancing at Percy while talking to the Mr. Klefton, the principal in hushed whispers. There was a book face down on his desk so I couldn't see the cover. Paul nodded and the Mr. Klefton walked out of the room.

"Alright, today we will be reading a book about the greatest hero and most powerful demigod of all time and I know that some of you guys know him." Mr. Blofis said.

"Mr. Blofis, I'm pretty sure none of us has meet Hercules." Cara, the know-it-all teacher's pet said a bit sarcastically.

I looked around and saw Percy clench his fists a bit when Cara mentioned Hercules or was it just me.

Mr. Blofis smiled and said "This takes place from the beginning to the end of the Second Titan War and Second Giant War over the last couple of summers."

Cara nodded.

Mr. Blofis said "The first book is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief."

Immediately my head along with everybody else's in the room shot towards Percy who looked down sadly and groaned.


	2. Chapter 2

Percy POV:

As soon as Paul said the title, I looked around the room and saw dozens of eyeballs staring right at me as if they were looking into my soul. I looked down and groaned. Seriously when will the fates give me break? I slowly looked up and saw the entire class still staring.

There was an awkward silence until Cara spoke up "Mr. Blofis what are you talking about? I am almost positive the gods stopped having children after the fall of Greece and the Roman Empire."

Okay, Cara was seriously getting on my nerves. She is definitely the smartest girl in the grade (She has nothing on Athena children), but she doesn't have to question everything and always assume she is right. Sometimes, I wish Annabeth could just come in and find a cure for AIDS on the spot and put her to shame. Sadly, Annabeth is still asleep at the apartment or working on designs for a new garden for Persephone or doing something normal for demigods such as killing some immortal demigod-preying demon. Annabeth has been staying with me, Sally, and Paul since the end of the Second Giant War. Yes we sleep together (NO NOT LIKE THAT!) because of all the horrifying nightmares we got after our stay in …Tartarus. Anyway, Paul spoke up and ended my mini mind rant.

"No Cara, there are some demigods still around today." Paul commented.

"Yeah, do you really think the gods changed their habits the last 3,000 years?" I said a bit irritably.

Cara glared at me and sneered "How would you know?"

I sighed my secret would come out eventually. I held out my hand and trying to match Cara's sarcasm said "My name is on the cover obviously."

I felt that familiar tug in my stomach and water poured into the window from the pond outside. I concentrated and willed the water to take the shape of a trident in my hand. The entire class gawked at the trident in my hand. I forced the water to take back its original liquid shape and go back into the pond.

"Son of Poseidon" I said.

My friends wiped the stunned expressions off their faces and crossed their arms. They must have been preeeetty pissed because I hadn't told them.

Alyssa glared at me and said "Why didn't you tell us?"

I replied "Umm, did you want to be vaporized by Zeus?"

My friends along with the class and Paul paled, but my friends still looked a teeny bit irritated. I looked at Eric and almost saw the light bulb flick on in his head. He got up and opened his mouth to speak, when I stepped in.

I said "And no Eric, I don't use my epic water powers to cheat in swimming."

Eric shut his mouth and sat down mumbling about how unfair it was that I got super powers.

"Anyways" I said "Paul how did you get this book and who wrote this."

All of the sudden a bright light flashed in the front of the room and I loud voice yelled Guiiiilttttty. There stood 18 year old form Apollo with his golden hair that stopped short of his eyebrows, tanned face and smirk that showed off his pearly white smile. He was wearing his usual unzipped Nike hoodie that revealed his polo shirt that basically screamed "I am a god and got swag", his matching Nike sweatpants, crew socks and Jordan slides that apparently to him were "in", and Golden beats that hung around his neck. I was always on good terms with Apollo, but had become pretty good friends with me after he helped me and Annabeth recover from our trauma from…..Tartarus.

Apollo looked at me and nodded then said "Yoooo mortals! I think you guys are hilarious by the way. It's me Apollo, the awesome and super swaging god of the sun, archery, music, truth, healing, and poetry. Oh yeah, Percy don't forget about paintball next Saturday with Hermes, Leo, and the Stolls."

The entire class looked startled, then surprised that a god would be this laid back, and then they basically tripped over their feet to bow. I laughed at the terrified look on David and his "tough" jock buddies' faces.

Apollo just laughed and said "You don't have to bow. I'm not like Zeus who will vaporize you for stuttering in his almighty presence."

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Apollo said that almighty part very sarcastically. The class gulped and nodded and then hesitantly got back in their sits as they shot me and Apollo curious glances.

"Anyways, I was the one to write this book with some help from Athena and the Fates." Apollo added.

"Of course" I mumbled.

Apollo had the makings of an impish smirk appear on his face as he snapped his fingers. There was another bright flash of golden light beside him and in its place were Nico and Rachel who were in the middle of a heated argument.

"It's not my fault Michael Jackson's ghost attacked you!" Nico yelled while waving his arms in the air frantically.

"Yes it is! You were the one who summoned him! You knew he would be pissed since I didn't have his music on my IPod!" Rachel hissed her face nearly as red as her hair.

Nico and Rachel both paused and slowly turned to face the class. I couldn't help it anymore I along with Apollo cracked up and started rolling on the floor. The class looked at them slightly scared and in confusion.

"Rachel" Alyssa, Eric, Mark, and Sarah all said at once, but it came out as a question rather than a statement. She was good friends with them as well before she went to Clairon.

"Apollo, Percy, Paul what in the name of Hades is going on?" They both said simultaneously.

"Nico, tell the class your godly parent." Apollo said.

"Fine, I'm Nico DiAngelo son of Hades." Nico said.

The class gasped.

After Paul calmed the class and explained the situation to them and Apollo told Rachel not to reveal herself and to wait until it came up in the books, Nico grinned evilly which looked creepy against his pale skin and I knew he was imagining all the blackmail he could get from this.

"All right then let's get started on this." Paul said as he flipped open to chapter 1.

"Chapter One: I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER." Paul began.

The entire class glanced over at me with eyebrows raised as if I had grown a third eye and Nico, Apollo, Mark, and Eric were rolling on the floor dying of laughter. I just shrugged in response.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. **

"Yeah it sucks, but when you get past the almost dying 3 to 4 times a day part it's actually pretty fun." Nico said.

All the guys in my class who thought that would be awesome before were starting to have their doubts.

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. **

Nico jumped up and closed the book.

"He didn't mean it like that Nico." Paul sighed as he reopened it.

Cara mumbled idiot under her breath. I heard her and glared.

** Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. **

Apollo's jaw dropped. He looked at me and said "You just said something smart and didn't use sarcasm. You can impress Athena with something now!"

"Yeah, I just saving billions of lives on a daily basis and Athena still hates me." I say.

The classroom along with Paul looked at me shocked with the exception of David and his jock friends who just sarcastically murmured things like "Sure" and "he wishes". I blushed from the stares. Then I suddenly remembered something.

"Oh!" I said to the class "Do you remember Annabeth and Malcolm?"

Everyone nodded and I saw all the guys start drooling when I brought up Annabeth, which was a bit irritating. Then for some reason Alyssa's gaze hardened and I saw David rub his wrist from when Malcolm disarmed him which cheered me up.

"Well they are both children of Athena."

Cara rolled her eyes and smugly said "Athena is a virgin goddess obviously."

Rachel smirked and responded "Well children of Athena are born in a different and disturbing way."

Rachel, Nico, Apollo, and I laughed at the girls green faces.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. **

Nico and I winced, while everyone excluding cough, cough the jocks cough, looked at us a bit sympathetically.

**If you're a normal kid reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. **

"Too late for that" Sarah whispered.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages - if you feel something stirring inside - close the book immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too. Don't say I didn't warn you.**

Eric ,Mark, Apollo, and Nico opened their mouths when Rachel snapped and said "Don't!"

** I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids. Am I a troubled kid?**

Nico, Apollo, and Rachel glanced at each other and burst out laughing while my swim team friends said a simultaneous yes.

**Yeah. You could say that. **

"Ha! He agrees." Alyssa shouted.

**I could start anywhere in my short miserable life to prove it, but things started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan - twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. **

"Annabeth and Malcolm would love that." Rachel pointed out, while the only thing David got from that was that I technically called myself mental cased.

**I know it sounds like torture. **

"I'm telling Athena!" Apollo exclaimed.

"Do you want me to die?" I asked.

"She wouldn't really kill you would she?" said Jake, who was just another kid who avoided me because of my "freakishness". He gulped when he didn't get a response.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair, and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. **

"Is that-""Yes it is."I said cutting off Nico.

While the rest of the class shot glances between us as if they were matching a tennis match.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor, and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. **

"Don't tell." I snapped at Apollo, who gulped and made a zipping of the lips motion.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. **

At this, Apollo, Nico, and Rachel burst out laughing and Paul had a slight smile twitching its way onto his face.

**Boy was I wrong. See, bad things always happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyways. **

The entire class cracked up even David had an amused smirk on his face (I know right!). All but Cara, she glared and scowled at me for being immature.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk, and our class took an unplanned swim. **

This just got everyone laughing harder, except for someone whose name starts with a C, ends with an A, and has AR in the middle.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Awwww" all the boys groaned and pleaded for more. I just said I would be getting in a ton of trouble throughout the books. That seemed to reassure most of them.

** This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

Nico and Rachel's fists clenched a bit at the mention of this.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth-grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from P.E. for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Nico cracked up and said "I'm definitely using this for blackmail."

I groaned he was going to have tons of dirt on me by the end of the book. I was never going to live this down.

** Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster threatened me with death, by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. **

"Aw man that sucks." Most of the guys said in unison, while Cara looked appalled.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." **

"Not as much as Tyson does." I commented.

"Who that?" some kid asked from the back.

"Just my Cyclops brother" I said off-handedly, while picking at me nails.

Most of the class looked at me probably picturing how I looked in a straight jacket.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

"You probably just backed out because you were afraid of being beat up by a girl." David sneered.

All the girls glared at him and he shrunk back in his seat which got me laughing.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

Apollo, Nico, Eric, Mark, and Jake smirked and started bouncing up and down in anticipation. It annoyed me that Jake started paying attention and cooperating with me every since the book started when he didn't before.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. **

"Waaaay longer" Apollo said as he stretched his arms apart.

Cara nodded as if she knew this already which she probably didn't.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds would give me the evil eye. **

"Hold up, Hold up!" Rachel said, "You were paying attention?"

"Yeah, why is that so surprising?" I asked innocently while smirking.

Rachel just huffed.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

Nico paled realizing who it was.

"How are you alive?" he asked.

I shrugged and said "Annabeth and a lot of good luck."

I heard a pencil snap and I turned to see Alyssa looking down right murderous with half a pencil in each had. Okay, something was definitely up with her.

Apollo laughed and said "Mrs. Dodds is from a place much farther south than Georgia."

** She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was a devil spawn. **

"Look who's talking." Nico said.

"Says you" Rachel said.

That got me, Paul, and Apollo laughing as Nico angrily huffed.

Sarah sent me a questioning look and I said inside joke.

"I'm not even going to ask." She said.

Alyssa looked pretty disappointed she wasn't "inside" the inside joke.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. **

"Aw man I hate detention." Mark grumbled.

All the guys nodded, while the girls rolled their eyes.

Then Nico spoke up and said "Oh my gods, she is still on the honey thing."

"She is? It's so annoying when she does that." I moaned.

**One time, after she's made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right." **

Apollo ominously said "Monster alert."

Paul paled and everyone leaned on the edge of their seats.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" It came out louder than I meant it to. **

"Classic Percy" Rachel sighed and I blushed.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" My face was totally red. **

**"**Like it is now" Eric said laughing which made me blush even harder.

**I said, "No, sir." Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele . "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

"Five drachmas he gets it wrong." Nico said confidently.

"You're on." Rachel agreed.

The class looked confused when Cara decided to butt in.

"It's Ancient Greek currency." She said a bit too smugly while looking at me with a face that said I'm better than you.

** I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. **

Nico's jaw dropped as he shakily handed the money to Rachel. The mortals' eyes widened when they saw the solid gold coins.

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" "Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. **

"Ugh," Apollo groaned, "Aphrodite complains about it all the time and always ends up puking on me."

The boys grinned at the girls green faces.

**"And he did this because..." "Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

Apollo gasped and looked down right offended when I said god.

"I know the difference first hand now anyway, sorry Apollo." I said.

"Idiot" I heard David mumble and a bunch of guys around him snickered. I simply rolled my eyes.

** "God?" Mr. Brunner asked. "Titan," I corrected myself. "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters - " "Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

The girls turned even greener and started to resemble a tree nymph.

** "- and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued. "And the gods won." **

"Wow, you just explained one of the biggest wars ever in 2 sentences." Apollo said looking surprised.

**Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real like. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'" "And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" "Busted," Grover muttered. **

"Owned!" Jake yelled and the class burst out laughing.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or horse hears" I said as I was shot bewildered glances.

** I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir." "I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part if the Underworld. **

I paled at the mention of Tartarus. I felt my palms sweating and my heart beating faster. Images of mutilated corpses and seas of blood flashed in front of my eyes. I remembered the faces of monsters each more horrible than the last and all of the sudden darkness flashed in front of my eyes.

Eric POV:

I heard a whimper and everyone in the class looked at the back of the room. Percy was shaking and muttering something about blood and then he collapsed against his desk. Apollo (It was still a bit unnerving to be in the same room as a being who could vaporize you with a snap of his fingers.) immediately got up and ran over to him. He starting chanting something in Greek and the color slowly started returning to his cheeks.

"Nico, Rachel, get Annabeth she is the only one who can get him to snap out of this." Apollo said with a serious face, an expression that looked wrong on him.

I could almost hear Alyssa's hand snap into fists at Annabeth's mention. It was funny how jealous she was, but I didn't say anything. I'm usually a guy who jokes and fools around, but right now I was scared. I squeezed Sarah's hand reassuringly as I watched the scary Goth kid whisper something in Mr. Blofis' ear who nodded. Apollo carried Percy out of the room closely followed by Nico. Everyone whispered among themselves and heard that jerk David say "dramatic much" to his buddies who snickered. A bunch of gossiping cheerleaders were whispering things about Percy's abs and how Apollo was hot. Well, he WAS the sun god. All of the sudden Apollo walked back into the room with a serious face back on. Brianna, who was one of those stereotypical gossipers, cautiously asked what happened.

Apollo stayed quiet for a second then sternly said, "Percy has seen things the worst of criminals don't deserve to see. Now, none of you will speak about this understood.)

We all nodded and I along with the class was shocked. Maybe, this book would end up explaining all the mysteries surrounding Percy Jackson.

"Paul continue reading." Apollo commanded.

Mr. Blofis nodded and went back to the book.

**On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside." The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. **

"When aren't they." muttered Cara.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner and asked, "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go - intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You must learn to answer my question," Mr. Brunner told me. "About the Titans?" "About real life and how your studies apply to it." "Oh."**

"Real intelligent" Mark joked.

** "What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"That sounded like some dramatic scene from a movie."I said.

Everyone looked at me strangely and Alyssa said "Is there a monkey banging cymbals inside your brain or something."

I just rolled my eyes and looked at Apollo who grinned at me. Sick, a god thinks I'm chill I thought excitedly.

**I wanted to get angry. This guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name very Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"Mr. Blofis," Jake started.

"No way, not happening." Mr. Blofis interrupted.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

"Athena's gonna be piiiiiissseed." Apollo said in the same way as your in troouubblle.

"Why?" David asked while lounging with his feet on his desk.

"Let's just say Athena isn't stoked with Annabeth dating a son of Poseidon after that whole Athens incident." Apollo said.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing at Alyssa's face.

**No he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he's been at this girl's funeral. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. **

"Poseidon and Zeus?" asked Cara.

Apollo looked annoyed, but nodded.

Just then Nico and Rachel entered the room and Rachel confirmed that Annabeth was on her way. I had to bite my tongue harder this time because it looked like steam was pouring out Alyssa's ears.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

Apollo and Nico made eye contact and smirked.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school - the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. **

"Doubt that worked" one jock snickered and I glared.

**"Detention?" Grover asked. "Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes, I mean - I'm not a genius.**

"Truest words ever spoken"Nico laughed.

**" Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

The entire class burst out laughing and it took a few minutes for everyone to calm down.

** I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed too. She's send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she's given me.**

"Mama's boy" David snickered.

That was true though. I liked that about Percy. I would always tease him about how he would kiss his mom's cheek when he saw her, but he would just say mama's boy and proud of it.

** Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the bass of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery, while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends - I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists - and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Everyone scooted back a bit because of the violent expressions on Apollo, Nico, and Rachel's faces.

** "Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see -the water - like it grabbed her."**

"Sick!" Jake yelled and I agreed his water powers were awesome.

"Percy makes a lot of water references, Sarah noted from my side "A wave roared in my ears."

** I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"He did." Nico said and Apollo nodded.

**"Now, honey – ""I know," I grumbled, "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Bad move." Rachel said.

** That wasn't the right thing to say. "Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her.**

"Wow, he's brave." said Alyssa.

**" I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me." Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said. "But - " "You - will - stay - here." Grover looked at me desperately. "It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." "Honey," **

"Seriously, what's with the honey?" I asked. Nico just shrugged and I figured that would be the best answer I would get.

**Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now." Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

Apollo shivered and said "There's a rumor that Percy's death glare caused Polybotes to wet his battle armor."

Everyone glanced at him confusedly and he shrugged. Nico laughed and Cara paled and muttered Polybotes again. I didn't know what a Polybotes was. As far as I was concerned it was either some sort of shape or a type of boat.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast? **

**"**Monster" Rachel timidly murmured.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know, I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. **

"Oookaayy, that's a strange way of putting it." Brianna said while looking in a mirror and doing her makeup.

**The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain was misinterpreting things. I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"He wishes." Nico said.

** But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. **

Cara looked around deep in thought trying to figure out who Mrs. Dodds was.

**Even without the noise, I would've  
been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it..."You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am." She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" **

"With what?" asked Cara. She was THANKFULLY ignored.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building. **

Cara's eyes widened.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." **

"That's…pleasant." Jake sarcastically asked looking puzzled.

**I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

All the guys cracked up and the girls glared.

"He must have made a killing." Apollo said laughing.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

This time I feel out of my chair, I was dying. Cara looked like she got sucker punched and Mr. Blofis just shook his head with a smile on his face.

** "Well?" she demanded. "Ma'am, I don't..." "Your time is up," she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

Cara gasped "A fury!"

I remembered learning about them from last year's Greek unit in Social Studies. They were one of the worst monsters you could face. I didn't see how Percy could get out of this without being torn to shreds.

Nico said a bit puzzled "I heard he battled her, but I don't see how he did the first time."

**Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. "What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Huh was the intelligent response from most of the class.

** Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Again with the honey" I mumbled.

** And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. **

"Naturally?" Cara asked eyebrows raised.

"Percy's anything but natural." Rachel replied with a smirk on her face.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hiss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

That snapped everyone out of their stunned state and everybody laughed. Seriously, he killed a fury at age 12 with no training I thought. Paul wasn't exaggerating when he said Percy was the most powerful demigod of all time. I now see the potential he has.

** Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Everyone asked. Then we turned to look at Rachel, Nico, and Apollo who smirked.

"Trick of the mist" Apollo explained.

** I said, "Who?" "Our teacher. Duh!" I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. **

"Awful lie Grover" said Apollo disapprovingly.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at me blankly. "Who?" "The other chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher." He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That's the end of chapter one." Paul said as he closed the book.

"Now that's the art of lying kids." Apollo said happily while Paul sighed.

Then the door opened revealing a smiling Percy with his arm wrapped around Annabeth his model-like girlfriend, but I preferred my Sarah. Every girl in the class was glaring at Annabeth who just used her startling gray eyes to examine them as if she looking at all the ways she could kill you. Percy took his seat and Annabeth looked at him with concern then was sat in Percy's lap and laid against his chest. SNAP! I looked over to see Alyssa looking coldly at Annabeth with half a pen in each of her hands.


	3. Chapter 3

Annabeth POV:

I was laying on me and Percy's bed at the Jackson/Blofis apartment working on some designs for a new temple to Hestia, when I saw something shimmer in front of me out of the corner of my eye. I set down my blueprints and looked up to see Rachel standing outside the nurse's office of Percy's school with a frantic look in her eyes. What did Percy destroy this time were my first thoughts.

"Annabeth get over here now!" Rachel yelled urgently.

"What did he do?" I said.

"He's having another anxiety attack!"

When she said that, I jumped up swiped my hand through the connection, grabbed Percy's car keys and ran out the door. I hopped in the car and sped off in the direction of Goode High School. After 10 minutes of weaving through traffic, I finally arrived at Goode. I jumped out of the car and sprinted to the main doors where I was met by an old lady with kind brown eyes wearing rubber gloves who I presumed to be the nurse.

Are you Annabeth Chase? She addressed me.

I answered with a quick nod.

"Right this way." She said as she turned and hurriedly walked with me to the door I saw in Rachel's Iris message.

She gestured with her hand to the door and I stepped in to see Rachel sitting next to Apollo at the end of a bed and Nico pacing back and forth with his eyes clenched shut in concentration. When I entered the room, Apollo turned to me with a look of satisfaction on his face. He got up to revealing Percy, who had eyes shut and was muttering something that sounded like my name, with his forehead glistening with beads of sweat and body trembling. I ran over to the bedside and sat down next to him. I rubbed small circles on his shoulder and squeezed his hand tightly. When he didn't respond, I bent down and kissed him softly. His eyes shot open and he looked at me. His shoulders slumped and he sighed in relief as he pulled me into a bone crushing hug. Percy kissed my hair lightly and pulled back. I looked him concerned and he sighed.

"Thanks." He whispered.

"Anytime." I said back as I got up to leave.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me back down next to him.

"Please stay." He murmured.

I looked at his desperate eyes and nodded.

Percy glanced up and smiled.

"You can stay for the rest of English." He suggested.

I stared at him questionably.

Nico looked up at me and smirked.

"Were reading a story about Percy's life." He said trying to convince me.

By now I was fairly interested, but I really didn't want to burden Paul's class.

"It's first person, so we get to hear all his thoughts." Rachel said with a smirk.

"All right, I'll stay." I said with my curiosity getting the best of me.

"Yes!" the three of them cried at once.

"Where did this book come from anyway?" I asked. I hated not knowing things.

"Apollo, Athena and the Fates." Nico said as he walked towards the door.

Rachel got up and followed him and both of them looked at us with a smile and stepped out of the room to give us some space.

Percy and I sat in a comfortable silence as he rubbed my shoulder and rested his head on top of mine.

"Let's get back to class." Percy said as he took my hand.

The two of us stepped out of the nurse's office and I gave a grateful nod to the lady who helped me. We walked down the corridor of classrooms and Percy said here we are as he stopped outside a room about halfway down the hall. I took a deep breath and gave him a nod before we stepped into the classroom. Being a daughter of Athena I am excellent at reading people's emotions. I looked around to see a mixture of a couple of girls glaring (I understand why Percy had godlike looks, but don't tell him I said that I don't want his head to explode from his giant ego), guys looking at me hungrily, an overconfident girl looking at we trying to scan we for flaws, smiles from Paul, Nico, Rachel, Apollo, and three kids in the back who looked like friends of Percy, and finally a cold-hearted glare from a girl with 2 halves of a pen in her hands who sat among Percy's friends. She was beautiful with long wavy brunette hair, tan skin and soft brown eyes and she gave me a look that said this is personal. I could tell she was jealous of me because I had Percy. She emitted confidence and by her self-assured posture I could assume that she was confident that her looks could sway him. Percy led me to the back of the room where his friends were. He sat down next to a tall red-haired boy with green eyes, who sat hand-in-hand with a pretty black-haired girl with pretty blue eyes. The black-haired sat next to the brunette girl who gave me the death glare. And to top it off, the brunette was seated next a tall blond boy with sparkling hazel eyes. Percy sat down and I looked around for a seat. Percy must have noticed my nervousness because he pulled me into his lap and I leaned against his chest. There was an awkward silence until the door burst open to reveal a curly brown haired boy that was covered in cuts and dirt and was panting heavily.

Alyssa POV:

I saw Percy enter the room with his arm wrapped around that girl, no she-devil. As you may know, I have a gigantic crush on Percy. Well, how could you not with his ripped muscles, tan body, messy hair, and beautiful sea green eyes. He would be so much better off with me then Annabeth. We have known each other for almost 2 years and know almost everything about each other. He said he dated Annabeth for 2 years, but that was probable a lie. He was definitely just saying that to keep all the annoying persistent girls away. He definitely met her a week ago or something. Annabeth's probably a dumb stuck-up blond. Annabeth scanned the room with her intelligent and startling gray eyes. I admit I was jealous. I was used to guys thinking of me as the best looking girl in school. I turned everyone down in hope of Percy asking me out, but he never did. Annabeth was beautiful she had a model-like body and I doubt she even had an inch of fat. All of the sudden, Alex ran into the classroom. I was so distracted by the book; I didn't even realize he was absent. By the shocked looks on my friends' faces, I could tell they didn't realize it as well. Alex was covered in scrapes and bruises, but I could see the same mischievous twinkle in his light brown eyes.

"Alex, what happened?" Percy asked with his eyebrows scrunched in concern.

"I was walking down the street looking good." Alex began when Mark interrupted.

"Seriously dude, what happened?"

"Okay, okay I'll stop." Alex shot back.

"Anyway, I'm walking down the street on my way to school, when some black haired lady with gray eyes walks up to me. She was really hot even though she was like 30. So, she comes up and said something about telling her the sea-spawn's thoughts about her favorite daughter. I'm like okay then and then I was all like mesmerized by her hotness and I told her she was hot. She glared at me and walked away. So, I keep walking when 20 owls come out of nowhere and start mauling me. And after half an hour running from owls, I finally made it to school." Alex said.

When he finished, every burst out laughing and it took 5 minutes to settle down.

"That was my mom, Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy." An-the she-demon stated.

"Whoa, you're Percy's girlfriend!" Alex shouted and anger once again filled me.

The she-demon answered with a nod.

"Wait I thought demigods are extinct." Alex said with an eyebrow raised suspiciously.

The class then filled him in on the story and Alex looked a bit angry at Percy for not telling him.

"Let's start another chapter we've got some time." Apollo said while looking up at the clock.

Mr. Blofis nodded in agreement and re-opened the book to chapter 2.

"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death" Paul began.

Once again we all gave Percy strange looks.

"My thoughts are weird get used to it." He simply said.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

"Not anymore" Percy said smiling

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"That would be an amazing prank; I'll tell Hermes about this." Apollo pointed out and Nico, Mark, Eric, and Jake nodded in agreement.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are." Rachel said laughing.

"I agree." Cara said a bit icily, but nearly everyone didn't pick up.

An-the she-demon heard her and sent a glare at her.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"10 drachmas it was Grover." Apollo challenged Nico.

"I'll take that bet." he said back.

**Almost, but Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Styx, not again" Nico muttered under his breath as he forked over the drachmas.

Everyone laughed at Alex's jaw dropped at the sight of the coins.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"I'll have Hermes put him down for a 7:30 lesson." Apollo said offhandedly.

**Something was going on. Something _had _happened at the museum.**

"Really!" Mark exclaimed in mock-surprise.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"I hate demigod dreams." The she-demon muttered.

"Oh sorry, I forgot your name. Was it Annabelle?" I asked with fake interest.

"Annabeth" she said back a bit irritably.

"Sorry." I said with an apologetic look on my face, but really a was smirking on the inside. I had found something annoyed her.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Man, Poseidon and Zeus were really pissed." Sarah said with raised eyebrows.

_Annabelle_, Percy, and Apollo shrugged and muttered yeas.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from D's to F's.**

Paul sighed, _Annabelle_ rolled her eyes, Cara looked like her grandma just go punched in the face and some of the snobbish nerds snickered, which got me, Sarah, and _Annabelle_ glaring.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Nico, Rachel and Apollo grinned when Mr. Blofis mentioned the fights with Nancy and _Annabelle_ smiled slightly and whispered something that sounded like seaweed brain.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

_Annabelle_, Apollo, and Paul burst out laughing and Cara looked surprised.

"It means drunkard." Cara gloated while smirking at Annabeth.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

Nico, Percy, and _Annabelle_ sighed, which got a lot of people shooting them confusing glances.

_Annabelle_ saw this and explained. "Most demigods struggle because we all have ADHD and dyslexia and sometimes we get kicked out from monster attacks that we get blamed for."

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick.**

David and his buddies snickered.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

My friends and I shot him confused glances and some people looked at Mr. Blofis angrily.

Mr. Blofis, along with Nico and Rachel, looked at him confused. Both Percy and _Annabelle's _expressions darkened and she squeezed his hand reassuringly which made my anger boil even more.

Brianna saw this and smirked as if to say Yooo'uure Jealooouus.

"Percy?" Mr. Blofis asked a bit confused.

He just shrugged it off and said "The guy who married my mom before Paul."

Apollo nodded with some menace in his eyes as if he knew this and being the god of prophecy probably foresaw this.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy, the view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

Mark, Eric, Alex, Nico, and Apollo snickered at this and _Annabelle_ cracked a smile.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me. I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

Cara rolled her eyes and whispered something to Arnold, one of her snobbish mathletes friends who thought he was better than because he was smart and had rich "sophisticated" parents, who grinned and snickered.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me.**

"It is." Percy said while shrugging.

**I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology _across my dorm room.**

_Annabelle_ looked up glared a bit at Percy, Paul shook his head and Cara, Arnold and their "sophisticated" friends' gasped in horror. Sarah and I laughed at their disgusted faces.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"It's that bad?" Alex asked a bit sympathetically.

Percy, _Annabelle_, and Nico nodded in response.

Cara looked at Percy, _Annabelle_, and Nico and then Rachel confused.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

"Met a couple of them so it no problem now." Percy said casually.

Cara and Arnold gasped and Paul looked at Percy worriedly. Wasn't Charon the Underworld's ferryman I thought? No, he couldn't be. Percy wouldn't be stupid enough to go to the Underworld right?

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I've gotten a bit better at those." Percy said proudly.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Nico shuddered and muttered, "Stupid Stolls" under his breath.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. **_

"He got the best." _Annabelle_ whispered to Percy which got me clenching his fists.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"That explains a lot." Arnold whispered to some of his friends who started snickering. Rachel heard this and shot a glare at them, effectively shutting them up.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Paul and _Annabelle_ smiled a bit at Percy.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,_"..._ worried about Percy, sir."I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Really" Nico said with a smirk.

"I wouldn't be talking remember the time with the hunters." Percy countered.

Nico turned red and then his expression turned into a depressed one. He looked at Percy, Apollo, and _Annabelle_, who all had the same sad look. Everyone looked at them in confusion. I wondered what happened I thought to myself. I looked questionably at Mark, Sarah, Alex, and Eric who all shrugged in response.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"You do have a point there." Jake said.

Most of the class shrugged and nodded in agreement.

**I inched closer."... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the _school_! Now that we know for sure, and _they _know too—" "We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"Still waiting" Apollo said grinning.

The entire class laughed along with him even if some were for a negative reason.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— _"_ "Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can." "Sir, he _saw _her..." "His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that." "Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean." "You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was.**

Most of the class perked up in confusion wondering what the last time was.

**Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—" The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Percy! The Hermes cabin would be ashamed! Apollo yelled.

"It's alright Apollo, Conner gave me some lessons." Percy said.

"Good," Apollo replied "he's a pro."

**Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Nice, always pick up your evidence Hermes and I learned that the hard way during that one prank with Athena and the tarantulas." Apollo said while shuddering.

_Annabelle _glared at him.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

Cara rubbed her temples in concentration trying to pick up anything that could be a hint.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow _clop-clop-clop, _like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"Solstice?" Arnold asked. He didn't get a response.

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..." "Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." "Don't remind me." The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. "Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?" I didn't answer. "You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?" "Just... tired." I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"Wouldn't work." Nico said. Everyone looked at him in confusion.

** and started getting ready for bed. I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"We always are." Nico said sadly.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"3 HOURS!" all the boys screamed horror.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem. "Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best." His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and** **made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Rachel, Nico, and _Annabelle_ growled and David and the jocks smirked.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir." "I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." My eyes stung.**

"Wimp" said David under his breath.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

Most of the room looked at Percy sadly.

**"Right," I said, trembling. "No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—" "Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me." "Percy—" But I was already gone.**

"Chiron is awful at pep talks." Apollo said while shaking his head.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were _rich _juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Apollo, Rachel, Nico, and _Annabelle_ raised eyebrows at him.

"Sorry, this is before I discovered I was a demigod." Percy said in defense.

"Wait, he's right." Apollo blurted out. "Except it's not Percy who's the Nobody and one day he will have a family with Nobody."

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"APOLLO!" Percy and _Annabelle_ shouted at once both blushing furiously.

"Sorry." He said "I saw some of that quest in my dreams and I couldn't help myself."

I looked at him a bit surprised. I never knew gods slept.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall. "Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool." They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Jerks" I muttered.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Stalker alert!" Jake shouted and all the boys nodded in agreement.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You must've scared the Hades out of him!" Rachel said laughing.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?" I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Percy!" Apollo shouted.

Percy rolled his eyes in response.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much _did _you hear?" "Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

Cara perked up.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …" "Grover—" "And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..." "Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

Nico, Percy, and Apollo all shrugged and nodded.

**His ears turned pink. From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer. The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Stupid Mr. D" Percy said shaking his head.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, causing everyone to jump.

**but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood_**

**_Keeper_**

**_Half-Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York_**

**_(800)_ _009-0009_**

"No prank calls." _Annabelle_ shouted at Jake, who slid his phone back in his pocket.

"**What's Half—" "Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address." My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. "Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or...or if you need me." "Why would I need you?"**

"Percy!" _Annabelle_ shouted and smacked his arm. Percy held up a finger as if to say wait a second.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

_Annabelle_ blushed and gave a playful shrug.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"Awwww!" Brianna and her friends cooed.

Percy looked down and blushed.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended _me._ "Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Monsters, Titans, Giants, evil earth goddesses, pissed off gods." Nico said casually.

Mr. Blofis' eyes widened and he paled.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice_. _There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree,**

_Annabelle's _eyes widened and she whispered Percy in fear. Everyone looked at her in confusion wondering who these ladies were.

**knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Cara gasped and whispered. "The fates"

I along with _most_ of the class paled.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

_Annabelle_ caught her breath and I saw tears glisten in her eyes. She gave Percy a bone crushing hug as if to make sure he was still there.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. "Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—" "Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?" "Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny" Rachel said seriously.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

No one laughed at the repeated words.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath. "We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on." "What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Get on the bus!" Sarah, Alex, Eric, Mark, Nico, Rachel and I shouted at the same time. _Annabelle _didn't because she was busy burying her face in Percy's chest and Apollo sat there with a blank expression on his face, most likely already knowing what's going to happen.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that _snip _across four lanes of traffic.**

_Annabelle_ let out a muffled whimper through Percy's shirt.

"It wasn't my string, but it was attached to the prophecy." Percy said

"Was it _his_?" Nico asked.

Percy nodded, but didn't elaborate.

_Annabelle_ pulled away and let out a breath of relief. I noticed the wet spot on Percy's shirt and I refrained from saying wimp to _Annabelle._

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

This got several people laughing and eased the mood.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. The passengers cheered. "Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. "Grover?" "Yeah?" "What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything" Rachel said.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?" "You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Much, much worse." Nico said gravely.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw." "The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older. He said, "You saw her snip the cord." "Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. "This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time." "What last time?" "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Dude your freaking him out." Eric said.

"You're talking to book." Mr. Blofis said.

Everyone laughed at Jake's red face.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Stalker alert!" Apollo yelled.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. "Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. No answer. "Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

Cara and Arnold raised their eyebrows.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of chapter 2." Mr. Blofis announced.

"That was a depressing ending." muttered Alex.

The bell rang and everyone shuffled out of the classroom.


	4. Chapter 4

Percy's POV:

I stayed in my seat with Annabeth curled up against my chest watching the class slowly shuffle out the door. I gave my friends a wave as they exited the door and they gave me and Annabeth a variety of salutes, waves, and nods as they sauntered out off the class. They all did this excluding Alyssa. She gave me a disappointed look as if saying that I could do better and shot Annabeth an annoyed look. I wondered who pissed in her cheerios this morning. Paul packed up his laptop and put the book in his backpack and Nico, Rachel, and Apollo walked over in front of my desk.

"I'm out. I've gotta catch Hermes and the Party Ponies at a club in Rio in 5 minutes." Apollo said before giving us a bright grin (literally) and flashing away, leaving behind the smell of a crisp summer afternoon and some scorch marks on the classroom floor.

Nico opened his mouth to say something when the sounds of classical Mozart blared from Rachel's pocket. Rachel fumbled through her pocket and pulled out her monster proof phone courtesy of the Hephaestus cabin. Ever since she took on the spirit of the Oracle she gave off a weak demigod scent that rarely attracted monsters. Well, it's better safe than sorry. She looked down at the caller ID and answered the call.

"Hello." Rachel greeted questionably with her left eyebrow raised in confusion.

After about 20 seconds of whispering on the other end of the line Rachel responded.

"Alright I'll get there in an hour and half, bye. Piper called. They just issued a minor quest and they need me for a prophecy." Rachel said.

She walked out the door not before getting hugs from me and Annabeth and an acknowledging nod from Nico, who didn't do "gross hugs" that invaded your personal space. I knew that wasn't the whole reason. A few weeks after the Second Giant War, he admitted that he used to have a crush on me. He said he wasn't like that anymore. He forced those homosexual feelings upon himself after Bianca died because he was all alone and was trying to discover and explore himself. He told me that there weren't many guys like him so there would be a less chance of getting his heart broken than if he liked girls. He didn't want to feel the pain of someone leaving him again. I guess he was still trying to get rid of those feelings.

"I'm going to help with the repairs at camp. It's better than sitting at your house watching you guys make out all night." Nico said while smirking.

He gave us a farewell salute and shadow traveled away. Paul left the room with his laptop bag slung across his arm and coffee in his hand headed to the tutoring center.

"Let's get out of the prison they call school." I said smiling as I took Annabeth's hand and pulled her out of the room. As we struggled to walk through the halls against the seemingly endless flow of students, I saw David and his buddies talking to a crowd of kids who shot me curious and menacing glances and muttered things like "freak", "defiantly not a hero", "poor", and "loser" among themselves as I shuffled past them. Arnold and Cara whispered something to a bunch of the "sophisticated" and intelligent kids about D and F's and Apollo while shooting glances at me and snickering among themselves. Things mortals say about me don't usually hurt me and I would be lying if I said these words didn't hurt. I knew I wasn't a hero. Everyone from Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter looks up to me as a hero and tell legends about me and Annabeth to the new kids at camp fires. I didn't think I deserved to have stories told about me. In my opinion I was just a stupid son of Poseidon who miraculously managed to get a genius daughter of Athena, who was even more beautiful than Aphrodite, as a girlfriend, and led his friends to their deaths. All of the people who died fighting for the fate of the world were the heroes. I wasn't rich. Most demigods (excluding many rich children of Aphrodite) who lived in the mortal world struggled to get by and I am far from smart. Annabeth must have heard people gossiping about me and took a step towards them. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her towards me.

"It's not worth it." I whispered in her ear.

Annabeth sighed and hesitantly nodded while still glaring at David and his friends and Cara and Arnold along with their friends.

Eventually, Annabeth and I found our way to my car that I shared with Annabeth. I basically shared everything with Annabeth. We both used the same iPod and she wore my clothes. I didn't wear hers because it would be a "bit" weird for a guy to wear skinny jeans. Anyway, we both got into my dream car, a blue Maserati Spyder that my dad got for both me and Annabeth as a "saving the world gift". Just a gift for something the typical teenager would do. This was not before I, being a gentleman, opened Annabeth's door for her which got her rolling her eyes at my cheesiness. We drove in a comfortable silence with me twirling one of Annabeth's curls in my right hand and the wheel in my left. After we arrived, we did homework first. This was insisted by Annabeth obviously. I got a bit more eager to do this after Annabeth bribed me into a kiss per correct answer deal that I quickly accepted. After we finished, we did something a bit more my speed. We played some GTA while feasting on the greatest thing in the world besides Annabeth and my mom who came in second place, blue cookies. Next, Annabeth and I had some spaghetti that my mom made before she went to dinner with Paul. We ended up accidently doing the classic kiss when eating the same strand of spaghetti which got us both cracking up. After a food fight and showers, we (mainly Annabeth) watched a documentary on History channel about the influence of architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome on America. I didn't care what we watched as long as Annabeth was happy.

Right now, I am lying in bed with Annabeth curled up against my bare chest thinking about how Annabeth's frame fit so perfectly against mine like two puzzle pieces connected. I could get used to doing this for all eternity. Where did that thought come from? Now that I think about it, I always pictured my future with Annabeth. It was understood between us that we would both get married eventually even though we didn't really talk about and maybe have a family. We would sometimes get in arguments, but I knew we would both never leave each other. I felt myself drift out of consciousness with these blissful thoughts still on my mind.

I woke up to laughing and a flash of light. I could faintly smell hay and animal fur and felt Annabeth groan and shift next to me. My eyes fluttered open to see my mom in the doorway laughing and I turned over to see Grover holding a camera with an amused smirk on his face.

"Grover!" I moaned.

"I'm sending this one to Piper for the "Percabeth" wall of fame." Grover said between laughs.

Annabeth rolled out of bed and slapped Grover on the head and sighed. I rolled my eyes and got up after her. Annabeth gave Grover a hug, grabbed some clothes, and went into the bathroom to get changed out of my oversized shirt and her pajama pants that she wore to bed last night. My mom gave me a nod and smile then went downstairs probably to make chocolate chip pancakes.

"You getting better?" Grover asked a bit concerned.

I nodded. I gained more weight and some of my tan back in the 2 weeks since I last saw him at the end of the war, but the nightmares would probably stay forever. Annabeth and I also would get consistent flashbacks, but these were slowly getting better. I had always had demigod dreams which were pretty bad, but the nightmares after Tartarus took the cake. I would also get a bad nightmare every once in a while, but sleeping with Annabeth helped keep them away.

Grover gave me a smile and said "Good, I really don't want the traumatized Percy and Annabeth who were shaking and mumbling about the Phlegethon and arai back."

"Me too. Let's go get some pancakes."

We walked downstairs and were greeted by my mom and the enticing smell of blue chocolate chip pancakes. Grover and I stacked some on a plate and stuffed the pancakes down our throats barely stopping for air. Annabeth walked down the stairs looking as beautiful as always with my backpack on and rolled her eyes at our "stuffed with pancakes" faces. I groaned at the sight of my backpack.

"Do I have to go to school?" I said pleadingly.

"Yes, you do. I'm coming with you if that makes things better, _which it should_. Also, I want to hear more of what goes on inside that big head of yours." Annabeth said with an evil smirk plastered on your face.

I groaned, but didn't argue that was impossible to win against Annabeth.

"Oh yeah, I forgot the main reason I stopped by for a visit." The goat-boy said evilly. "I heard that there was a book written in your point of view and you had a _certain_ description of me."

"Sorry?" I responded in defense, but it sounded like a question.

Grover sighed and still looked a bit annoyed at me.

"I also want to hear the book and _maybe_ get some blackmail out of this." Grover said.

"Alright you can come. Also, spend less time with the Stolls and Valdez. They're starting to rub off on you." I pointed out.

Grover's eyes widened when I mentioned spending time with Leo, Travis, and Conner and he nodded vigorously.

"Get in the car we're going to be late." Annabeth said as she popped a bacon strip in her mouth and started putting her shoes on.

Grover and I sighed, but didn't dare object Annabeth. Grover slipped on his fake shoes and we all piled in the car. I was at the wheel, Annabeth in shotgun, and Grover in the back. We started up some small talk during the 10 minute ride and finally arrived at Goode. Annabeth and Grover both followed my schedule for the day. This involved some brave souls, A.K.A jerks, walking up to me and making fun of me, which got me and Grover pulling Annabeth back on several occasions. Some curious kids asked questions that we all ignored. Girls glaring at Annabeth for some reason, I didn't know what she did to them. Guys were looking Annabeth up and down with drool coming out their mouths like she fell from heaven. This didn't happen. She was carried down from Olympus by Zephyr, duh! Grover and Annabeth both pulled me back refraining me from snapping these guys' necks by the way. Grover and Annabeth both seemed to get along with my friends, except for Alyssa. Grover seemed to get along with her just fine. By this point, I was almost positive something was up with Alyssa. She would shoot Annabeth icy looks when she thought I wasn't looking. The question was why. I wasn't going to try to figure Alyssa out though. Girls were almost as hard to understand as the Oracle which was weird since the Oracle was a girl. Now, the 3 of us were walking to my last class of the day, English with Paul. We walked in the room and took 2 seats in the back. Annabeth sat in the best seat in the class, my lap. The rest of the class filed in and my mortal friends took 5 seats in front of us. The rest of the class filed in. Many of them were looking at Grover strangely.

"This is Grover Underwood and he's…umm…you'll see." I said while gesturing to Grover, who gave a small wave to greet the class.

The class gave Grover strange looks, but didn't say anything.

"Chapter 3, **Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants**." Paul read while staring at Grover as if he grew antlers. That was impossible; he had horns.

Alex POV:

I along with the rest class stared at that Grover kid, Percy, and Percy's insanely gorgeous girlfriend Annabeth and snickered at Grover's blushing face. Grover's a dirty boy I thought after hearing the title.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Grover glared at Percy and Annabeth slapped him on the back of the head, while those snobby jerks looked shocked and some of the irresponsible guys (That's me!) laughed and congratulated Percy.

"Hey, I keep most of my promises." Percy pointed out trying to redeem himself, but then his expression darkened and he looked down in deep thought. I looked over at Mark and he shrugged.

"It was my fault" Percy muttered.

Annabeth squeezed his hand and Grover said "She made her own choice Percy."

Percy looked up his eyes brimming with tears opened his mouth to retort, but Grover and Annabeth gave him a look and he didn't argue.

Mr. Blofis sensing the tense atmosphere started to read leaving the rest of the class wondering what happened.

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

Cara, Arnold and there band of jerks slightly relaxed.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"That is pretty creepy." Jake said and most of the class nodded in agreement.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. **

This got all the guys rolling on the floor and the girls smiling slightly at Grover's cherry red face.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.** **"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

A lot of the guys perked up at that.

"We don't live there anymore." Annabeth said.

Wait a minute, _we_ I thought.

"What do you mean by _We_" I said while smirking evilly.

Annabeth and Percy's eyes widened and they blushed furiously.

"So, you two live together." Alyssa said and could hear the venom in her voice that was directed towards Annabeth.

They both blushed again. This got most of the girls glaring at Annabeth except a couple of the sophisticated girls, who probably thought that it was below their level to date a delinquent like Percy.

"Do you guys sleep together?" David said evilly with a little jealously in his voice that was directed to Percy.

"Not like _that_!" Percy yelled while shaking his head frantically.

"You didn't deny sleeping together though." Eric said.

I wish I had a camera right now to take a picture of Alyssa's enraged face. I didn't know it was possible for someone to get that angry.

Mr. Blofis started to read again to save Percy and Annabeth from further embarrassment.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Awesome"

"Amazing"

"Kind"

"Miracle Worker"

"Makes amazing cookies" I added which got all my friends nodding in agreement.

I also heard some kids from Cara's area say poor and stupid and a few jocks say drug addict and sl-…wait kids are reading this…umm…something inappropriate. I started to get up, but Sarah must have also heard them and pulled me down before I could beat them up.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, **

Everyone who met her smiled and nodded in agreement.

**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"That includes Annabeth and Percy." Grover said.

I saw Alyssa, along with the "sophisticated" kids and the jocks, biting their tongues. Alyssa was probably trying to refrain from insulting Annabeth and the rest from insulting Percy. As much as I liked Annabeth, I thought Alyssa should date Percy. They were both on the swim team and had lots of other things in common. I mean I was a little jealous that there were hundreds of people Percy was probably better friends with than me, but I mean Percy knew us, along with Alyssa, longer than Annabeth right. Well, obviously he knew Grover longer, but Annabeth? I guess we'll find out.

Percy and Annabeth opened their mouths to retort, but Grover interrupted with some weird animal bleat. Wait, animal bleat? Cara must have heard this too because she narrowed her eyes at Grover, who I admit was a bit weird. He already had a goatee and had some strange limp. Also, he has a crazy obsession with enchiladas.

"Seriously, you two have the worst luck of any demigods in history, especially Percy. Percy you're first 5 monsters were some of the most feared monsters of all. You guys got the worst luck, but are the two greatest heroes to and that will ever live. So, stop denying it." Grover ranted.

Percy sighed in defeat and Annabeth smiled a bit. She might be a bit prideful I thought. My friends looked at Percy and Annabeth with wide eyes, while most of the class rolled their eyes in disbelief. Mr. Blofis beamed in pride at Annabeth and Percy.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Most of the class looked shocked at her bad luck. Even the jerks of the class looked a bit more sympathetic towards her.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"So Cute!" Brianna squealed and clapped her hands along with the rest of the popular girls and cheerleaders.

"I swear you guys are daughters of Aphrodite in disguise." Annabeth said while rolling her eyes. Percy and Grover shrugged and mumbled in agreement.

**I don't have memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"He visited." Annabeth said a bit surprised, even a little jealous.

Judging by the tone of her voice, I could assume that the gods didn't show up to their kids basketball games.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.** **See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, **

"_Very _rich and important." Mark said.

"I never would have guessed, _Einstein_." Arnold said while rolling his eyes which got the rest of his friends sniggering.

"Hey don't use my brother's name in that tone!" Annabeth snapped angrily.

The "sophisticated" kids' eyes widened. Albert Einstein was a son of Athena? I wonder what other famous people were demigods.

**and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.** **Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"I lie, but not a lie." Jake said looking impressed.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. **

Most of the class' jaws dropped and everyone who had met Sally smiled.

**But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"We know that too." Cara said as if joking around, but I knew that was meant to be an insult.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano,**

Grover, Annabeth, and Percy's expressions darkened and the 3 of them were practically shaking with anger. Mr. Blofis also clenched the book a bit tighter. Brianna and her friends started whispering among themselves and were giggling and smirking at Mr. Blofis.

**who was nice for the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. ** **When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

All of the girls turned a bit green and I felt my eyes water and I struggled to hold back a gag at the mental image.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along . . . well, when I came home is a good example.**

All of my friends perked up trying to learn more about Percy's childhood that he avoided talking about.

"Paul, I don't think we should….pry." Annabeth said, while biting her lip and squeezing Percy's hand.

All of the sudden a bright flash entered the room. In its place stood the attractive black-haired, grey-eyed lady I saw last week. Percy pulled Annabeth off his lap and frantically bent down to bow. Grover's whiskery chin trembled as he bowed and Annabeth smiled as she gave a respectful bow.

"Daughter," The lady I now realize is Athena started, "Perseus, Grover,…and Mortals." She finished.

She gave me a cold stare and her hand started to glow with grey light, before she took a deep breath and the light extinguished. I gulped and bent down to kneel with the rest of the class.

"Yo-…You must be Lady Athena I assume." Cara said while stuttering.

Athena's eyes flashed dangerously.

"You assume correctly…puny, ignorant mortal." Athena finished with an unreadable expression.

"Perseus, as much as you may have…abhorrence towards you're past, the mortals must come to revere mankind's savior along with the rest of the heroes who saved them from the annihilation of their world. Remember, Perseus. If you ever hurt my favored daughter, I bring you suffering and grief that you're mortal mind can't possibly comprehend. I will cast you back into immortal hell for all eternity. Understand." Athena said with venom in her voice and a glare that would make MMA fighters piss their pants.

"Y-…Yes L-..Lady Athena." Percy said while shaking.

Athena nodded accepting the answer and flashed out of the room. Several owls landed on the tree branch outside the classroom. All of them with their large grey eyes trained on Percy.

Mr. Blofis gulped and continued reading.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. **

The jocks snickered among themselves.

**Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

Most of the class gagged at the description and Annabeth whispered reassuring words in Percy's ear which got Alyssa silently fuming. Mark noticed this too and sent me a knowing smirk.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."** **"Where's my mom?"** **"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"** **That was it. No ****_Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?_**

Most of the class' hands tightened their grip on the desks and Jake, Brianna along with several other kids shuffled their feet under their desks maybe feeling a bit bad for being a jerk to Percy and not giving him a chance. The jocks and rich "sophisticated" kids just rolled their eyes and I heard David whisper to someone next to him how Percy deserved a stepdad like that. I clenched my fists and looked at Eric who shook his head at me as if saying "not worth it".

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in a thrift-store clothes. **

"That's an insult to walruses." Grover said angrily.

Sarah smiled at him and went back to looking at Percy a bit concerned.

I started cracking up at the thought of a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes.

Everyone looked at me strangely, but I shrugged them off.

**He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

Brianna and her friends looked shocked and disgusted.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. **

Mr. Blofis, Annabeth, and Grover were shaking in anger.

"Please tell me you got rid of this guy." Eric said breathing heavily.

Grover, Annabeth, and Percy shared knowing, evil smirks that unsettled me. Did they kill him?

**Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Everyone looked at Percy who had a dark, murderous expression on his face. Annabeth rubbed circles on the small of his back and Grover looked down sadly and then met the shocked faces of the class and waved us of. My friends shared furious and sympathetic glances. Sarah and Alyssa had tears in their eyes. Who knew Percy had such a dark childhood. I was furious. What monster would abuse Percy? He was the nicest guy in the world.

"A loser like Percy deserved to be abused." David whispered to the rest of the jocks, who smiled in agreement.

Cara and Arnold overheard this and started to whisper to their friends. All I heard was something about Percy and his mom deserving this because they were the "trash of society". I silently fumed, but didn't do anything. Maybe, I would bust some heads after class. I didn't care if I got suspended. Mr. Blofis took a few deep breaths and continued reading to try to take attention away from Percy which didn't work.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.** **He raised a greasy eyebrow.** **Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Grover, Percy, and Annabeth exchanged smiles at this.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. **

"That's pretty…impressive," Eric started, "he can count to twenty."

Most of the kids laughed at this.

**Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. **

"Carry his own weight!" Alyssa shouted furiously.

"He doesn't do anything except buy beer and gamble!" Sarah finished angrily.

**Am I right, Eddie?"** **Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least one of those _things _has feelings." One of the cheerleaders said and the rest of her friends nodded and grumbled in agreement.

**"Am I****_ right?_****" Gabe repeated.** **Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Most of the class gagged and shot Percy sympathetic looks who just tightened the grip on his desk and shrugged the class off probably not wanting the pity.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"I doubt that monster could do any better." Annabeth said in a sadistic tone.

Cara and Arnold exchanged glances and started snickering at the mention of Percy's grades.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

2 of the cheerleaders ran out of the room and into the bathroom probably having a early revisit with today's lunch.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Your sarcasm's awesome!" Jake said and I mumbled in agreement with Eric and Mark.

"Yeah, at camp the Stolls and Leo named him the "Sarcasm King." Grover said in admiration.

Everyone looked around confusedly at the mention of this "camp" of theirs.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.** **But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

I felt my heart pounding in my chest and I looked over at my friends who had pale faces and were shuffling their feet nervously.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"** **She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted away.**

Everyone who met Sally smiled, David and his friends snickered and Cara, Arnold and their friends muttered something under their breaths that sounded like "poor trash". Annabeth heard this and she glared at them angrily.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. **

"She sounds amazing." Brianna said smiling maybe sounding a little jealous.

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover smiled at each other and smiled.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's been seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. **

David whispered something to his friends then to Cara, Arnold, and their friends. All them looked at Percy and grinned evilly as if they were planning something.

"Sally's like a mom to me." Annabeth said smiling.

"Soon to be mother-in-law." Grover said while biting his tongue to prevent laughs from escaping when looking at Annabeth and Percy's red faces.

Several girls glared at Annabeth and Grover, but none was close in comparison to Alyssa's glare.

"Don't you have a mortal step-mom?" Alyssa said her eyes still flashing with rage.

"Yes." Annabeth said suddenly looking a bit angry.

"Why isn't she like a mom to you?" Alyssa said with a barely noticeable smirk.

Annabeth's hand twitched towards her thigh, but she took a composing breath and didn't respond.

Grover said that as if he was sure they were going to get married. I still doubted love like that between teens. Earlier in the year, Percy said they dated for nearly 2 ½ years, but I thought that was exaggerated. Most teen relationships lasted less than 2 weeks.

**I've never heard her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"Woah!" Most of the class said with eyes wide.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

Once again Cara and Arnold's group of jerks along with David's jocks smirked mischievously which made me a bit nervous.

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

All of the guys drooled and I heard people mumble things like lucky which ticked me off. 2 minutes ago they were laughing at him for having a terrible childhood.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?** **I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

David and his friends laughed and Brianna and her friends squealed something about "mother-son bonding?"

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"** **I gritted my teeth.**

I also gritted my teeth along with the rest of the class.

"Pig." Grover snarled his nose twitching in disgust.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Paul's as good as a millionaire." Annabeth said smiling.

Some of the "richer" sophisticated kids and a couple of stuck up cheerleaders mumbled about how their daddy was richer.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. **

"He's probably used to it." Arnold said trying to sound pitiful and as soon as the class turned their attention back to Mr. Blofis he started snickering among his friends.

**I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. **

Cara, Arnold and their friends started laughing again.

**I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. **

The jocks laughed and Cara mumbled something about Percy being a dropout.

**Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.** **Until the trip to the museum . . .** **"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"** **"No, Mom."** **I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"It wouldn't of Percy she could she through the Mist." Annabeth said softly against Percy's shoulder.

Percy nodded in response.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but didn't push me.** **"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

Annabeth and Percy smiled as if recalling old memories which made me a bit jealous. I had only been to Percy's house a few times and I certainly was never invited to his house.

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"** **"Three nights-same cabin."** **"When?"** **She smiled. "As soon as I get changed,"** **I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Poor trash." Cara whispered too her friends.

Annabeth, Grover, and Percy glared and the water bottle on Arnold's desk started to shake.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

My friends and I clenched fists and the jerks of the class smirked and silently laughed. I had to help Eric restrain Sarah from clawing their eyes out.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.** **"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."** **Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"** **"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."** **"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. **

"The money that he doesn't make." Jake pointed out.

**That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."** **Gabe softened a bit. **

"Oh, how I love bribery." I said which got many students agreeing with a trouble maker's smirk.

**"So this money for your trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Brianna and her friends' jaws dropped.

"Daddy says that we won't ever need a budget because he owns several law firms and has a couple hundred million, you know." Cara said while smirking at Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.

Most of the class looked at her in envy.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said."And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."** **"We'll be very careful."** **Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with the seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologized for interrupting my poker game."**

"Interrupted! He funded it." Mark shouted.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it!" The non-jerks of the class shouted.

Most of the class perked up in hope of a fight.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.** **Why did she put up with this guy? **

I looked questionably at my friends silently asking the same question. They shrugged in response.

**I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?** "**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."** **Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"What brain?" Jake said which got most of the class laughing.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.** **He went back to his game.** **"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"** **For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"Should have told her." Annabeth said a bit sadly.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.** **An hour later we were ready to leave.** **Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car, he kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro- for the whole weekend.**

"Spoiled Bi-..Jerk." Sarah corrected while looking at Mr. Blofis, who laughed in response.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," **

"He's quite the opposite of brain boy." Some said from behind Arnold that got the "sophisticated" kids laughing.

**he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving." Annabeth said rolling her eyes.

**Like I'd be the one driving. **

Everyone laughed at Annabeth and Percy's faces.

**I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.** **Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-of-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

"Percy it takes YEARS for the average demigod to master that." Annabeth said with an astounded expression on her face. Grover fainted and Annabeth slapped him causing him to jolt back into consciousness.

I along with the rest of the class stared at Percy in shock and fear of Percy's power.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.** **I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

I started cracking up. Everyone looked at me weirdly.

"Sorry, w-wh-what if she literally stepped on the car." I said between laughs.

The strange looks didn't change.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. **

"Poor" Arnold whispered to his friends.

**There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,** **and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.** **I loved the place.**

"You better make sure there are no spiders there the next time we go." Annabeth said with her arms crossed across her chest.

Percy gulped and nodded and Alyssa gripped her desk tighter.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Brianna and her friends whispered excitedly. I bit my tongue to keep from laughing at Mr. Blofis' red face.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

Brianna squealed. I suddenly regret not bringing ear plugs.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" Alyssa asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That was weird." Jake said.

Alyssa smirked a bit in Annabeth's direction, probably a bit excited about the thinking like Percy thing.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She brought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano was proof she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak like me.**

"Percy, you have WAY more than a rebellious streak." Annabeth said.

"Yeah, you pissed off more gods than Kronos." Grover added.

Everyone in the class paled.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"She won't have enough money with Gabe gambling it all away." Eric said angrily.

Almost every agreed except for-you guessed it-the snobby jerks.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father.**

Eric, Mark, and I all exchanged a smirk at Paul's face that became a bit red with jealousy.

**Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.** **"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.**

"You do look like a younger Poseidon." Annabeth pointed out.

Grover nodded in agreement.

"_Sure_, you met Poseidon." Cara said rolling her eyes, but I could hear the doubt in her voice.

"Wait and see." Grover said mysteriously.

**"** **Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. ** **"I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."** **I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me?** **A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Nothing" David said as he lounged with his feet on his desk and the jocks sniggered behind him.

Annabeth and Grover started to get up, but Percy pulled them back down.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean . . . when he left?"** **She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."** **"But . . . he knew me as a baby."** **"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."** **I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember . . . something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.** **I have always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still. I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never seen me . . .** **I felt angry at my father. **

"It wasn't his fault Percy." Grover said softly.

"I know, I know." Percy said while shaking his head.

**Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. **

Mr. Blofis pursed his lips at this.

**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.** **"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"** **She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.** **"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think . . . I think we'll have to do something."** **"Because you don't want me around?" **

"Percy!" Annabeth shrieked and slapped his arm.

Sarah and Alyssa crossed their arms and glared at Percy.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good." Annabeth, Alyssa, and Sarah said at once.

Alyssa looked like she bit into something sour.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I ****_have_**** to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."** **Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was the best for me to leave Yancy.** **"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Far from it." I said laughing.

Percy rolled his eyes playfully. The jocks and "sophisticated" kids laughed too, but in a cruel manner.

"Not always a bad thing." Annabeth said.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. **

Annabeth smiled.

**But you don't realize how important you are. **

"Because his isn't." one of David's friends said.

I glared and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, because the Savior of Olympus isn't important." Grover said sarcastically.

"Okay, _sure_" David said.

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover exchanged small grins.

**I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."** **"Safe from what?"** **She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.** **During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under is broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Dad sent a Cyclops soldier to check up on me." Percy said.

Everyone looked a bit freaked out at this.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Hercules." Arnold said looking a bit surprised.

"I'm nothing like _Hercules_!" Percy said spitting Hercules' name out with menace.

"Obviously, because Hercules is an actual _hero_." David sneered.

"_Hercules_ is no _hero_." Percy said with fists clenched.

I wondered what wrong Hercules did wrong? I looked at my friends who shrugged.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.** **I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. ** **But I couldn't make myself to tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

Annabeth and Grover face-palmed.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that it was a mistake. But there's only one other option**, **Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it."** **"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"** **"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

Everyone exchanged confused glances. The "sophisticated" smart kids thought hard. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover smiled.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born-talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?** **I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

Cara raised her eyebrows at this.

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp . . ."** **She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked any more questions she would start to cry.**

"Women and their tears." Jake sighed shaking her head.

All the girls glared at him.

**That night I had a vivid dream.** **It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Zeus and Poseidon again, and fighting?" Arnold said with an eyebrow raised.

Annabeth glared at him, but nodded.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. **

"Go Poseidon!" Percy cheered and fist pumped.

Annabeth rolled her eyes with an amused smile on her face.

**As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Hades?" Sarah asked eyebrows raised.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover exchanged nervous glances, but didn't respond which was a teeny bit unsettling.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. **

"That explains a lot looking back on it." Percy said and Annabeth and Grover shrugged.

Cara and Arnold concentrated soaking in every detail.

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, ****_No!_** **I woke with a start.** **Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.** **With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."** **I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. **

"Only when dad gets a little pissed off." Percy added.

A LITTLE! I thought.

**But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. ** **Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

Everyone sat on the edge of their seats and Percy, Grover, and Annabeth looked down sadly.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.** **My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.** **Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't . . . he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"How?" Jake questioned.

Percy and Annabeth laughed and Grover scowled.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"Stalker." I said in sync with Eric, Jake, and Mark and Grover groaned and made that weird bleating noise again.

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.** **"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"** **I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

Annabeth snickered and everyone looked at Grover in confusion.

**_"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!"_****he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"** **I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. **

"Number 1, how? Number 2, Grover you potty mouth!" Mark shouted.

**I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be . . .**

"Spit it out already!" Brianna groaned and Percy rolled his eyes.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: ****_"Percy._**** Tell me ****_now!"_** **I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.** **She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. ****_Go!"_** **Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.** **Because where his feet should be, there were no feet.** **There were cloven hooves.**

**"**And that's the end of Chapter 3." Paul finished and the bell rang.

Grover kicked of his shoes to reveal cloven hooves.

"Grover Underwood, satyr." Grover said while mock bowing.

Everyone stared at him with slack jaws.


End file.
